Screen conveyer.



Patented Nov. l4, I899.

0. J. CONLEY.

SCREEN CONVEYER.

(Application filed Dec. 31, 1898.)

2 Sheets-Sheet I.

INVENTOR (No Model.)

In: Ncmus versus 00., PHOTO-LIYHO., wAsmNs'roN, n. c.

No. 636,762. Patented Nov. [4, I899. 0. J. CONLEY. SCREENQONVEYER.

(Application filed Dec. 31, 1898.) (No Model.) 2 SheetsShBei 2.

WITNESSES: INVENTOR:

THE NORRIS PETERS $0., PHoTo-u'ma, WASHINGTON u. c.

UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE.

OlVEN J. CONLEY, OF NEW YORK, N. Y.

SCREEN CONVEYER.

s'PEoIFIcA'rIofi forming art of Letters Patent No. 636,762, dated November 14, 1899.

Application filed December 31, 1898. Serial No. 700,859. (No model.)

To all whom it may concern.-

Be it known that I, OWEN J. OONLEY, a citizen of the United States, residing at NewYork, in the borough of Manhattan and State of New York, have made a new and useful invention in Screen Conveyors for Simultaneously Screening and Handling Goal or Similar Material, of which the following is a specification.

A My invention has for its objects, first, to construct a screen conveyer which shall simultaneously screen and convey the material to be handled; second, to combine a screen conveyer of the character indicated with additional means for directing also the finer or screened particles from beneath the conveyor; third, to so construct a screen conveyer which simultaneously screens and conveys the ma terial that its carrying portion will be of trough-like conformation; fourth, to combine with a screen conveyer means for keeping the independent carrying or conveying portions thereof continuously taut. These several obj cots are accomplished by the mechanism hereinafter described, and illustrated in the accompanying drawings, the especial points of novelty thereof being particularly pointed out in the claims at the end of the specification.

Referring now to the drawings, Figure 1 is a side elevational view illustrating my novel combined screen and conveyer, together with the means for keeping the independent parts of the conveyer taut and additional means for causing the descending screened particles to pass by gravity to either side of the apparatus. Fig. 2 is a sectional view thereof, taken on the line w 00, Fig. 1, and as seen looking thereat from the right toward the left hand side of the drawings in the direction of the arrows, additional means being illustrated in this figure in dotted lines, in sectional and elevational view, for conveying or carrying the screened particles to some distant point. Fig. 3 is an enlarged sectional view of one of the driving or supporting drums and the independent conveyer-cables supported and driven thereby, the supporting and driving shaft of said drum being shown in elevational View. Fig. 4 is a view similar to Fig. 3 of one of the intermediate idler-drums which sustain or support the independent conveyercables and the load carried thereby.

Referring now to the drawings in detail, in all of which like letters of reference represent like or equivalent parts wherever used,

D D represent, respectively, driving and supporting drums, supported by shafting S, journaled in standards G G at the opposite ends of a framework or structure capable of supporting the entire apparatus. These drums are preferably made of metal and are of curvilinear form, as shown in Fig. 3 of the drawings, their surfaces being each provided with a series of grooves 9, adapted to sustain independent wire or other cables R R R.

D D D are metallic idler-drums, supported each by shafting S, journaled in intermediate standards, said drums being provided with a series of grooves g, identically similar to the series of grooves g in the drums D D. (See Figs. 3 and 4 of the drawings.) These drums, it will be noted, are of smaller diameter than are the driving or supporting drums D D and are so located that their outer surfaces are in direct alinement with the corresponding surfaces of the drums D D, so that when the screen and conveyer cables R R R are located in position in the grooves g 9 they will unitedly constitute a screen conveyer of trough-like form.

D D are tightening-drums similar in all respects to the drums D, said tighteningdrums being journaled in sliding journals H H, to which are attached by cords r 7" heavy weights W W on opposite sides of the structure, the arrangement being such that said tightening-drums will give to the upper or trough-like screen-conveyer part of the structure sufficient tension to carry the load it is desired at any time to put upon it.

Referring now to Fig. 2 of the drawings, I will describe that portion of the apparatus which is designed to direct the screened particles to either side of the structure and also the means for conveying such screened particles to some distant point. B B represent inclined surfaces of a roof-like structure, located beneath the upper screening and conveying part of the apparatus and supported by rafters upon the framework, which supports the entire structure. These inclined surfaces extend laterally over the sides of the structure and are adapted to direct the finer or screened particles of the material to the trough-like conveyer-belts O 0, supported upon curvilinear drums D D D D being supporting-drums for the return portion of the conveyer-belts G C.

The operation of the apparatus is as follows: The necessary tension having been put upon the screen and conveyer-cables R by the tightening-drums D D and their supported weights W W, the apparatus is driven in the proper direction through the agency of any driving means, (not shown,) but attached to one of the shafts S, which supports one of the drums D, and the material is emptied or discharged upon the other end of the screen conveyer and carried forward thereby. As it is thus carried forward it tends to be continuously rolled toward the center of the trough-like portion, and consequently the finer or sm aller particles are permitted to pass through between the individual cables R R and descend in opposite directions upon the surfaces B B to the upper or trough-like parts of the conveyer-belts C O, whence they are carried in either direction, as desired, to points beyond the ends of the entire structure.

I do not limit my invention to the specific means herein shown and described for simultaneously screening and conveying the material. to be handled thereby. To illustrate, the drums D D might be of cylindrical form and grooved in the manner shown, in which event the upper or screening and carrying surface of the conveyer would be substantially fiat; but I prefer to construct the apparatus with grooved and curvilinear drums, substantially as shown in Figs. 3 and 4 of the drawings, for the reason that with such a structure the best results are obtained, inasmuch as the trough-like form of the carrying portion of the apparatus permits of the handling of a greater amount of material and with little or no danger that any of such material will be lost over the sides thereof as it is being transported or conveyed. Furthermore, such a structure causes the material, as already indicated, to be turned over and overin its trans mission because of the dilferent speeds transmitted to the independent cables, it being obvious that the extreme outer cables will .travel at much greater speed than will those located near the center of the screen and conveyer, thereby making it certain that all of the finer particles which will pass between the individual cables R R of the screen conveyer shall ultimately be screened or separated from the material it is desired to handle or convey. Nor do I limit myself to the specific means illustrated in the drawings of directing the screened material laterally to conveyer-belts C C, located on opposite sides of the structure, as it is obvious that instead of the roof-like structure B B but one inclined surface might be provided extending under the entire length of the screening and carrying part and discharge the screened particles at one side only of the mechanism and upon a single conveyer, if it is desired to convey said particles to some distant point.

I am aware that an endless conveyer has heretofore been constructed of a single rope wound successively around driving-drums, so that the individual parts of said ropes, which constitute the carrying-surface of the conveyer, lie side by side, and that a tightening device'for such a conveyer has been used in connection therewith, as disclosed in United States Patent to Francis H. Richards, No. 568,586, granted September 29, 1886, and I make no claim hereinafter broad enough to include such a structure.

\Vith my novel apparatus, hereinbefore described, each cable is independently supported, and the breaking of any one of said cables does not necessarily materially damage the apparatus, and the individual cables are separated by definite spaces, as shown, so as to constitute a screen as well as a conveyer.

Although I have described my invention as especially applicable for screening and conveying coal, it may obviously be used under various conditions-as, for instance, for conveying wet garbage, where it is required to drain the water out of the material, or in connection with coarse gravel, sand, and boulders, or in fact in any place where the act of simultaneously screening and conveying is desirable. Nor do I limit myself to the use of wire cables R R, as said cables may be constructed of any flexible material, as rope or chains, or for fine screening may be made of wire, and the grooves g g may be separated to any desired width for the purpose of regulating the screening capacity of the structure. Nor do I limit myself to the use of grooved driving-drums D, as it is obvious that any equivalent mechanical type of driving-drum might be substituted therefor, and in the event of the use of chains sprocket-teeth might be supplied on the faces of said drums for driving said chains, my invention being directed broadly to a screen conveyer provided with independent flexible con veyer-cables or the like and driven in the manner described.

Having thus described myinvention,what I claim, and desire to secure by Letters Patent of the United States, is-

1. A screen and conveyer having grooved driving and supporting drums and independent cables supported side by side in said grooves, in combination with tightening means, supported by the lower parts of said cables, for giving to the upper or screening and carrying parts thereof sufficient tension to carry the load supported thereby, substantially as described.

2. A screen and conveyer having grooved driving and supporting drums and one or more intermediate idler-drums, all of said drums being provided with grooves, in combination with independent cables supported side by side in said grooves, substantially as described.

3. A screen and conveyer having grooved driving and supporting drums and one or more intermediate idler-drums, all of said drums being provided with grooves, in combination with independent cables supported side by side in said grooves, and tightening means supported by the lower parts of said cables for giving to the upper or screening and carrying parts thereof suflicient tension to carry the load supported thereby, substantially as described.

4. A screen and conveyer having curvilinear and grooved driving and supporting drums, in combination with independent cables supported in said grooves, substantially as described.

5. A screen and conveyer having curvilinear and grooved driving and supporting drums, in combination with independent cables supported and driven thereby and means for tightening said cables so that the upper or screening and carrying parts thereof will support the load to be carried thereby, substantially as described.

6. A screen and conveyer having curvilinearand grooved driving and supporting drums and one or more intermediate curvilinear and grooved idler-drums, in combination with independent cables supported by said drums, substantially as described.

7. A screen and conveyer having curvilinear and grooved driving and supporting drums and one or more intermediate curvilinear and grooved idler-drums, in combination with independent cables supported by said drums and tightening means for giving to the upper or screening and carrying parts of said cables sufficient tension to carry the bination with means located beneath thescreening and carrying part of said conveyor for directing the material screened there= through from under said carrying part, substantially as described.

9. A screen and conveyer having grooved driving and supporting drums and independ= ent cables supported by said drums, in com bination with means located beneath the screening and carrying part of said conveyer for directing the material screened therethrough from under said carrying part; together with additional conveying means for conveying said screened particles to either end of the apparatus, substantially as de= scribed.

10. A screen and conveyer having curvilinear and grooved driving and supporting drums and one or more intermediate curvilinear and grooved idler-drums, in combination with independent cables driven and sup= ported by said drums, and tightening means for tightening the upper or driving parts of said cables, together with means located be neath the screening and carrying part of said conveyer for directing the smaller or screened particles of material laterally, substantially as described.

In testimony whereof I have hereunto subscribed my name this 28th day of December, 1898.

OWEN J. OONLEY.

Witnesses:

O. J. KINTNER, M. F. KEATING. 

